60 Minute Makeover

An Apollo Creative bubble tube features as part of a bedroom redeisgn on ITV's 60 Minute Makeover to be transmitted on the 22nd January.

A bubble tube was donated for use in the makeover for a jungle themed bedroom. The passive tube slowly rotates through colours creating an exciting feature point for the room.

You can find out more about other suppliers on the program on the ITV site or contact us to find your nearest distributor.

Scarborough Student Feedback

The project with Scarborough students at the Rotunda was completed in November, since then they have gone on to work on other projects. It was therefore nice to see some feedback on the University of Hull website, backing up the project objectives originally devised my myself and Rob MacKay.

"Charmed assignment very enjoyable – a real life brief so felt the pressure of getting it right and great to have feedback from Jan and Mark and others from Museum as get a feel for what to expect in work environment."

"I enjoyed the first assignment as it was a real life brief to which we had to respond. The subject matter was unusual and interesting and the scope for creativity was great.I enjoyed working with the people in our group. We worked well together which is important for creating a successful outcome. I particularly liked the feedback from Jan from the Museum Trust & Mark Hildred during the design process, as they were real industry experience comments which were really helpful." 

"The Rotunda Museum Project was so far one of the best experiences ever in my life! Never knew I could learn so much in so little time. Time spent on this project is simply invaluable! Hope to do some more similar projects in the near future." 

I hope that next years students enjoy it as much!

Lynda joins the team

Lynda Bullock celebrates her move to Apollo

Apollo welcomes Lynda Bullock as Account Manager, the latest member to join our growing team.

Lynda comes from our parent company, GSPK Design, and brings with her a wealth of experience in customer relationship management. Her new role is to help provide a direct point of contact for our distributors and to deal with enquiries.

"I'm looking forward to working with all of Apollo's customers and helping to work towards developing our product lines. It's an extremely exciting time to be joining the team with sales continuing to grow despite the recession."

Lynda has previously worked with adults with learning difficulties and does respite care for a child with autism.

New website for Ensemble

Today saw the launch of a new website dedicated to the Apollo Ensemble product range. www.apolloensemble.co.uk aims to provide detailed information about Apollo Creatives interactive light and sound system.

Creative Director Mark Hildred explains:

"The Ensemble products are capable of doing so many different things that we felt the existing Apollo website was too constraining. The new site allows us to explain in detail all the features and applications for the equipment."

The site will be expanded over the coming months, to provide a comprehensive overview of the Ensemble, sensors and software.

Christmas Grotto Sensory room

The Halloween sensory space that we created in October has been changed to Christmas themed Grotto, complete with Father Christmas and bags of presents!

Instead of employing a witch, the Grotto uses the help of an Elf, who guides the children round the space exploring the different sounds, lighting and images and using the interactivity to tell stories and play games.

The highlight of the space is an interactive dice, that can communicate to a computer which way up it is facing. A different set of sounds is played depending on which side is chosen, and the projection also changes. All of the images are shown beneath the outline of a window frame to make it appear that the children are looking out into a magical world controlled by the dice. The multi-coloured dice also controls the colour of the bubble tube.

After playing games and telling stories with the Elf, the children enter into a second room and see Father Christmas who gives them a present and takes their photo.

The Interactive Christmas Grotto is open to the public throughout December at Creepy Crawlies, a children's adventure play site in York.

IT Diploma - Wilberforce College, Hull

Following on from the session last week at Manor School in York, today I was at Wilberforce College in Hull for their IT Diploma. The students there are going to be looking at the Ensemble Designer and Player software, offering their expertise on icons, window design and technical support documentation.

We hope that their assignments will lead directly to some visible changes to the software.

Students install at The Rotunda

Today was the final session on the Interactive Technology course at the University of Hull, Scarborough Campus. The students had to present their interactive installations at the Rotunda Museum and allow those of us marking to have a play.

Apart from a few technical issues (most of them not to do with the students) the whole event went very well. Each group had devised a creative way to present a selection of Charms from the collection.

I advise you to get down and have a look if you are over in Scarborough over the next couple of weeks.